I was mildly scandalized by the song's title and chorus when I first heard it. I was a good church-goin' boy and it felt wrong to enjoy the song so much. Now that I've learned that the lyrics are actually about a huge hidden crush and not spirituality, I like it both less and more.

Ice Cube’s idea of a perfect day (a game of basketball followed by craps and dominoes, a Lakers win, drunk driving, the Goodyear blimp displaying that you are, in fact, a pimp) may differ slightly from mine, but his enthusiasm is contagious.

In olden times I actually discovered new music via MTV. When I saw the video for Basket Case one night I knew that I had to get the album right away. The song gave a voice to my teenage alienation while at the same time deflating it ("Do you have the time / to listen to me whine / About nothing and everything all at once?").

I’m going to admit this here: As a high schooler I had a big crush on Mary Tyler Moore. Not the single-gal-in-Minneapolis version, but the sassy-wife-of-Dick Van Dyke version. So this song always made perfect sense to me. And the video is my favorite ever.

Adam Duritz name-checks Bob Dylan and Pablo Picasso while anticipating reality television: “When I look at the television, I want to see me staring right back at me!” The Crows would have many more hits, but none touched the sheer bliss of this. - RN

My grandfather bought this CD for me at a Venture department store in Decatur, Illinois. How had I heard of it? That detail is lost to time. All I know is that as a college freshman who supposedly hated country music, it sounded pretty sweet to my ear.

She may have been a bad, bad girl—the video for this song was downright naughty—but this is a remarkable song. “I’ve been careless with a delicate man?” Perhaps—but there isn’t a careless or misplaced note or word here. - RN

You might remember this song from the scene in High Fidelity where John Cusack’s character says “I will now sell 5 copies of The Three E.P.’s by The Beta Band.” Why were the patrons of Championship Vinyl compelled to buy a copy of this album? Because this song is fucking good, that’s why. - EE

While the European version makes more sense, lyrically, than the slightly schizophrenic version that ruled American charts, there’s no question that this was one of the catchiest songs of this or any decade. - RN